Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

I remember when this movie came out it faired poorly at the box office and was off the theatres within a week. But I think it generated an underground sort of movement amongst youth who wanted to watch a different kind of cinema and soon it had a cult of its own. You ask any Indian cine fan between 30s and 40s his/her top 10 favorite movies and I think this movie will figure in the list somewhere.

The plot is simple; two struggling photographers accidentally get involved in the filth that Indian 'system' is and which includes everybody from the police to media to politicians to builders etc. etc. etc. Once involved they try to expose everyone involved but the question is 'will they survive?'

Performance wise, everyone from Naseer to Ravi Baswani to Pankaj Kapoor to Satish Shah to Satish Kaushik to Om Puri have given brilliant performances, probably amongst their best. It's almost like magic that you know that it happened but you never know how. The film is bustling with synergy of all these performers (actors, writers, director and the whole crew) who are just happy to work with each other and in such a creative environment and are out to make a difference. And difference they made. It is and will remain a cult classic with people from our generation.

Many people don't know that this film is based on real story yet it is so humorous and very much interesting.

Story is similar to political storm of 1980s regarding Bridge collapse. The characters name also matches. Tarneja = Raheja (Builder) shobha = shobha de (Reporter) D'mello = rebello (Commisioner)

Kundan Shah has to be acknowledged for writing this beautiful story with current affairs. Every details of film is outstanding and also dialog's. This is not best comedy film but also best film. Every actor has to be credited for his work. Naseerudin shah, pankaj kapur, om puri and satish kaushk specially.

They've never quite managed to make a movie like this one. Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Vaswani play photographers caught in a messy affair involving corrupt politicians, wicked businessmen, canny journalists (and some hammy actors). Giving director Kundan Shah (who has, surprising, gone on to the make some of the most awful films of the last decade) the chance to unleash his brilliant satire. He hits all his targets. Satish Shah is hilarious as a dead body on roller skates, and the 'Disrobing of Draupadi' scene in the theatre is one of the funniest ever shot. Like the rest of the film, it could have been cringe-inducingly-awful. If it weren't so funny, that is.

A lot of comments about this movie have centered on the apparently slapstick comedy, ignoring its usage to lend a sense of the grotesque in what is a essentially a masterful farce, and beneath the surface, more of a tragedy.

This movie centers around the two young protagonists, full of ideals and the will to win against the powers of endemic and ubiquitous corruption, a corruption that is so manifestly present that the others do not seem to question its existence, but implicitly assume it and use it to serve their own ends. However, our heroes find the going quite tough.

Although partly inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-up", this movie is in a class by itself, with dark humor reminiscent of Kafka and Gogol. The star cast includes some of the finest actors to ever grace the screens of Bollywood (or for that matter, anywhere else). Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor and many others deliver stellar performances in this tragi-comedy which is one of finest pearls produced by the New Wave movement in Indian cinema.

Regretabbly, comprehension of the movie requires intimate knowledge of the background, something which you would only have if you have lived in India, where corruption is as natural as breathing, and if you are familiar with the turbulent times when New Wave Cinema was taking off, a time of discontent and idealism among youth, a time of unemployment and the times of the angry young man (as typified by Amitabh Bachchan in many commercial films from this era).

However one can still enjoy it for it is a comedy worth watching. Hopefully, the viewer will see the tragedy beneath the humor.

I rate this movie among the finest movies of all time, and in the class of farces, it stands alongside Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove".

Two simple photographers, trying to eke out an honest living, caught in a web of scandal and deceit.

Fantastic direction, outstanding plot, brilliant script, phenomenal casting and amazing acting. This movie has you laughing till the last scene, which is when the laughter is wrenched from your throat!

The movie has great attention to detail. For example, the scene when monkey is being photographed, look into the mirror in his hand. You actually see Tarneja in a checked jacket and gun in hand. Which leads to the single biggest flaw: no gunshot heard?

But that may be forgiven. The comedy is unending!!! For example, the Dhritrashtra, still blind, saying "This is too much! Yeh Akbar kahaan se aa gaya?"... Or Tarneja and Ahuja entering the Mahabharat in complete costumes, but still wearing their specs and sunglasses respectively! That, to my mind, is the single longest comic scene in Hindi cinema!

The laughs do not stop!!! It stays, to date, the best tragi-comedy ever!